Defense argues Ronald Adams, 16, was elsewhere during 2009 shooting

Ronald Adams was only 13 when he became an accused murderer, charged in a late 2009 fatal drive-by shooting in West Palm Beach.

A week before his 17th birthday, Adams on Wednesday sat as a defendant on trial in Palm Beach County Circuit Court with the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.

The State Attorney's Office is prosecuting the West Palm Beach teenager as an adult, on one charge of first-degree murder with a firearm while masked, and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, based on a grand jury indictment.

Similar charges against another teenager initially suspected of being an accomplice have been dropped, and Adams remains the only person charged in the Dec. 7, 2009 attack.

Prosecutors say Adams was among three or four young men in a stolen 2004 white Chrysler Sebring convertible that almost slowed to a stop in front of 3031 Windsor Ave., east of Australian Avenue, in the Northwood community.

At 5:07 p.m., the shooters aimed and fired handguns and AK-47 assault weapons at a group of men and women at a "jovial" gathering outside the residence, said Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Dutko.

"People were screaming, people were bleeding, people were running, quite literally, for their lives," Dutko said during opening statements Wednesday. Jurors later listened to some of the chaotic scene during a playback of a 911 call.

Trevor Derell Harrell, 36, a lawn maintenance worker, died at the scene from one shot to the head, Dutko said. Jerry Gibson, 41, Nelson Autrey, 38, and Daniel Jones, 42, — all current ages — survived various gunshot wounds.

Gibson lived at the house. He and his daughter, Jerqueisha, told police they spotted Adams in the Sebring; his mask had slipped off, Dutko said. Both are expected to testify.

Adams "was observed and identified as having a handgun and shooting at a group of people," Assistant State Attorney Andrew Slater said, before the trial opened.

But defense attorney Arthur Wallace said Adams, then a seventh-grade student at Turning Points Academy, wasn't in the car and has relatives who will testify he was at an apartment complex about a mile away.

"He had nothing to do with that shooting over at Windsor Avenue," Wallace said during his opening statement to the jury.

Adams got off his school bus that Monday afternoon and walked to his aunt's home where he ate and played video games with his cousins, Wallace said of the alibis.

The defense contends there is no DNA, fingerprint or ballistics evidence that can prove Adams was among the shooters.

"There is no evidence to support a verdict against Mr. Ronald Adams," Wallace said, also calling statements from the Gibsons conflicting and unreliable.

But before the jury was chosen, Wallace told Circuit Judge Stephen Rapp that Adams would agree to plead guilty to one count of manslaughter and accept a sentence of 7-1/2 years in prison with credit for time already served in jail since his arrest.

But both Adams' mother and Harrell's mother objected to those terms and the selection of 12 jurors and one alternate juror continued.

A motive for the violence still remains unclear.

While Dutko said Jerqueisha Gibson recognized Adams from "seeing him every day at school," Wallace argued they attended different schools since Adams had transferred out of Roosevelt Middle. The girl and Adams previously had a "schoolyard grudge," Wallace said.

Joyce Harrell said her son was innocently chatting with friends when he was slain. She said Adams deserves a lengthy prison sentence.